The Comic in Henry Fielding's 'The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling'

Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject English - Literature, Works, , language: English, abstract: Fielding is often considered one of the most significant contributors to the development of the English novel. His nearly seamless incorporation of drama, satire, romance, and epic into his works helped distinguish the novel as a new and unique genre quite distinct from its early influences. Fielding's long and bitter feud with rival novelist Samuel Richardson also contributed to the development of the novel form: opposed to the didactic tone and unrealistic characters and situations of his contemporaries, Fielding infused the novel with compassion, comedy, and a heightened sense of realism. His comic sense is deep and sometimes under it very serious themes may appear. Although Fielding's lasting reputation rests on his major novels, he was also a popular and important playwright, an influential journalist, and one of England's leading judicial reformers. In all of his writing, Fielding demonstrated a concern with social and moral hypocrisy, attacking not only Richardson but also dramatist and Poet Laureate Colley Cibber and Prime Minister Robert Walpole for what he considered their failure to deal openly with serious social issues, whether in literary works or as a government official. Nowadays his novels and his humor became popular again and in this work author is going to look deeply in one of the comic literary works'The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling'.

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